I'd planned earlier this week to head out after work on Friday evening for a little weekend herping.  But after my little "nap" Friday afternoon turned into a couple of hours (guess I was tired!) and I finished some repairs/modifications to my hoop turtle traps Saturday morning, I was already running way late on my plans...story of my life.  I ended up catching more turtles by hand (x2) than in my three traps (x1)...HA!

After dropping off the dog at my parents' in Huntsville, I headed down HWY 23--"the Pig Trail".  Got immediately behind a motorcycle with a later-middle-aged couple.  On one of the funny leaning curves, the guy lost control of the bike.  They didn't seem to be going too fast for it, but--in retrospect--I'm pretty sure the guy hit his front break much too hard in relation to his back break...bad mistake.  The back tire lost traction with the pavement and oscillated all over the place.  And SMASH!...right into a rocky ditch.  Got to play first responder...lucky me.    The motorcycle ended up on top of the gal who was in much pain and having trouble breathing with the weight on her.  Another good Samaritan and I got the bike up.  The guy was knocked out cold, but came around in a couple of minutes.  About every 3 minutes, he would ask "What happened?"...and we would tell him.  And then, another 3 minutes..."What happened?"...and we would tell him.  Not exactly funny (not at all, but there is kind of this feeling of absurdity after a while), but we must have answered the same question 20 times waiting for EMS.  Well, there's more to it, but in the end I figure they both were going to come out of it pretty well.  Gal had some bad burns on her side where the engine ended up on top of her and possibly a fractured hip.  Guy obviously had a concussion and a gash on his head that would need a half-dozen stitches.

Am I ever going to get to the herps in this post???  HA!

Well, okay...

I saw a number of AOR/DOR snakes driving to and fro this weekend, but stopped for none.  Most were Texas ("Black") Ratsnake.  Things are definitely moving!

Most of my afternoon was spent happily paddling about in my canoe.  Well, mostly happily, except for once coming around a bend and getting a full-eye view on the other bank of a very large white lady's backside taking a...what I hope was just #1, but fear otherwise.  What exactly is the proper etiquette for that situation????  I just turned my head and paddled on.  HA!

Somewhat expected, but I didn't turn up quite as many herps canoing as I might have by other methods...plus, I didn't have a lot of time to scout for the best marriage of herping/canoing; I just put in at the first stop.  It didn't matter much to me, I had been itching to put my canoe in the water for a long time.

Along the way, I saw some turtles (fewer than expected), watersnakes, and a few frogs.  It was so warm, I continued with some road-cruising after dark and crossed a couple of additional Diamond-backed Watersnakes.  Several species of frog were calling after dark...Cricket, Spring Peeper, Chorus, Gray Tree, Leopard.  A couple of times, I could have sworn I heard a Bird-voiced or two thrown into the mix.  I waded one shallow flooded area in my rubber boots that was just crazy alive with stuff...frogs, watersnakes, and even a turtle.  I couldn't help but ask myself though, where are all of the Cottonmouth????...didn't see a single one the entire weekend.

There are some fantastic backwater/swampy habitats in the area...and this is quite a bit upriver from where one would expect to find this amount and quality of this habitat type.  I think I may already have a county record or two from the common stuff I turned up (and really all I saw this time was common/expected species), but I fully expect a few significant records/range extensions to come from working the area in the future.

I'll try to follow up with a few pictures as soon as I have time to sort through and process them.

Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis holbrooki)...DOR
Northern Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus aestivus)...DOR
Texas Ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus)...DOR/AOR
Plain-bellied Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster ssp.)
Northern Diamond-backed Watersnake (Nerodia rhombifer rhombifer)

Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
Ouachita Map Turtle (Graptemys ouachitensis ouachitensis)
Eastern River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna concinna)
Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
Eastern Musk Turtle (Sternotherus odoratus)

Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri)
Blanchard's Cricket Frog (Acris blanchardi)
Western Bird-voiced Treefrog (Hyla avivoca avivoca)...maybe calling???
Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)
Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea)
Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)
Cajun Chorus Frog (Pseudacris fouquettei)
American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus utricularius)